Modern hearing devices can be adapted to various acoustic and/or inductive surround situations with the aid of various hearing programs. Therewith, the hearing device is of use to the hearing device user in every situation. The adaptation, i.e. the switching between various hearing programs, is performed by manually activating a switch or a remote control as well as automatically with the aid of a suitable algorithm.
A method to automatically recognize a momentary acoustic or inductive surround situation, and to adjust a hearing program most suitable in the determined acoustic surround situation is known from the publication of the international patent application having a publication number WO 01/22790 A2, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,895,098. The known teaching is related to a very efficient algorithm with the aid of which the acoustic surround situation can be determined with a high reliability.
Furthermore, a method to automatically switch between hearing programs with the aid of a fuzzy-logic controller is known from EP-0 674 464 A1, the controller being realized in analog technique.
Finally, a programmable signal processing unit is disclosed by EP-0 064 042 A1, which signal processing unit allows a manual and automatic switching between hearing programs. However, useful criterions for the switching process have not been disclosed.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to further improve a method to operate a hearing device.